Saturday, November 22, 2014

Fwd: Some references to and quotes of 'St' Francis Xavier and the Goa Inquisition


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ishwar Sharan <ishwarsharan@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 12:15 PM
Subject: Some references to and quotes of 'St' Francis Xavier and the Goa Inquisition
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Sayings of Francis Xavier


In his letters to the Jesuits in Rome, Xavier wrote: "There are in these parts among the pagans a class of men called Brahmins. They are as perverse and wicked a set as can anywhere be found, and to whom applies the Psalm which says: 'From an unholy race, and wicked and crafty men, deliver me, Lord.' If it were not for the Brahmins, we should have all the heathens embracing our faith."

"Following the baptisms, the new Christians return to their homes and come back with their wives and families to be in their turn also prepared for baptism. After all have been baptised, I order that everywhere the temples of the false gods be pulled down and idols broken. I know not how to describe in words the joy I feel before the spectacle of pulling down and destroying the idols by the very people who formerly worshipped them." Xavier did this after the Hindu raja of Quilon had given him a large grant to build churches!

Anti-Brahminism


Francis Xavier was the pioneer of anti-Brahmanism which was adopted in due course as a major plank in the missionary propaganda by all Christian denominations. Lord Minto, Governor General of India from 1807 to 1812, submitted a Note to his superiors in London when the British Parliament was debating whether missionaries should be permitted in East India Company's domain under the Charter of 1813. He enclosed with his Note some "propaganda material used by the missionaries" and, referring to one missionary tract in particular, wrote: "The remainder of this tract seems to aim principally at a general massacre of the Brahmanas" (M. D. David (ed.), Western Colonialism in Asia and Christianity, Bombay, 1988, p. 85). Anti-Brahmanism has become the dominant theme in the speeches and writings of Dravidian politicians and Indian secularists of all sorts.

Xavier's letter demanding the Inquisition be sent to Goa

Francis Xavier sent this letter to the King John III of Portugal on May 16th, 1545: "The second necessity for the Christians is that your Majesty establish the Holy Inquisition, because there are many who live according to the Jewish law, and according to the Mahomedan sect, without any fear of God or shame of the world. And since there are many spread all over the fortresses, there is the need of the Holy Inquisition and of many preachers. Your Majesty should provide such necessary things for your loyal and faithful subjects in India." – Joseph Wicki,
​ ​
Documenta Indica, Vol. IV, Rome, 1956.

The Inquisition in Goa


Historian Paul Roberts describes what went on in the I
​n​
quisition's Goa court that had been housed in the Sultan's old palace and had a huge plaster image of Christ overlooking the scene: "Children were flogged and slowly dismembered in front of their parents, whose eyelids had been sliced off to make sure they missed nothing. Extremities were amputated carefully, so that a person could remain conscious even when all that remained was a torso and head. Male genitals were removed and burned in front of wives, breasts hacked off and vaginas penetrated by swords while husbands were forced to watch…. And it went on for two hundred years." – Paul Williams Roberts, The Empire of the Soul: Some Journeys in India,
​N​
ew York, 1997.





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sent from samsung galaxy note, so please excuse brevity

1 comment:

karyakarta92 said...

India needs to develop ICBM's capable to delivering thermonuclear warheads to Portugal. The Goa inquisition needs to be avenged. The last word on this subject has not been written.